I am a proud and humble member of the American Leadership Forum Criminal Justice Class 1 (“ALF CJ Class 1”).   I believe that the class members will ultimately effect positive and meaningful change in the criminal justice system.  I must admit, however, it didn’t start out that way.

I was initially apprehensive about joining the ALF CJ Class 1 when initially invited.  Additionally, I didn’t think I had time for this intensive, 18-month commitment that doesn’t allow for absences.  In my mind, balancing my job as a single mom, City Council Member, as well as lawyer, convinced me that I didn’t have the time to spare. 

Likewise, I was unsure if I had common goals with the others, and whether we as a group could actually effect positive and meaningful change in the vast and diverse chasm known as the criminal justice system in which I am very passionate about. I am a criminal defense lawyer, fighting to preserve the civil rights guaranteed by the US Constitution.  I have continually fought to make it better, both before and after being elected.

I am a firm believer that society is most affected by crime and the root cause of crime is social injustice. My skepticism was linked to trepidation that ALF CJ Class 1 would not accomplish all that it was intended to.  The task was too great; the spectrum too wide; and the players too diverse with independent motives and objectives.  

It wasn’t I didn’t want to be a part of positive and meaningful change, it just seemed like there would be a lot of meetings and talk and then things would go back to normal.  Eventually, the very strong dogged urging/pressure from Judge Bonnie Hellums pushed me to accept the invitation, albeit, not with my heart in it.  I practiced for Judge Hellums, in family court, where she always assigned me as a guardian ad litem to children or parents whose lives had constantly been stepped on and were in need of an advocate who would fight for them when perhaps no one else would.

Harriet Wasserstrum, the President of the Houston/Gulf Coast Chapter of the ALF also called and emailed me incessantly.  I made the decision to join and attended the first class activity, a reception/meet and greet. Those in attendance were people from all different areas of the criminal justice system from former judges to social workers to licensed psychiatrists to the head of the county juvenile probation system to elected offices to victims of crime to a rehabilitated ex-offender doing positive things in the community, to the district attorney’s office to various law enforcement agencies to mental health experts to non-profits, as well as many others.

The room was filled with high level people, in their respective areas, who had executive authority and the resources to effect meaningful change in the criminal justice system.  In other words, they were decision and policy makers. The second class activity was a two-day retreat in the woods with virtually no communication with the outside world. 

You should have seen us decision makers trying to find cell phone or wireless internet reception.  We did team and trust-building exercises in which we shared our inner most thoughts about who we believed ourselves to be.  In some instances, people shared stories they’d never told anyone, much less a room full of high powered strangers.    

The third and most recent activity was a five-day wilderness adventure in some mountains in Colorado. We were in the middle of nowhere with absolutely no cell phone or internet reception.  We had to pledge to leave the world as we knew it, without connection, and submit to what ALF had to offer.    

Our first big challenge/leadership builder was white water rafting down a river. Each group had to place an equal number of people in the raft, equally distributed on each side with our rafting guide, in the back, acting as the rudder.  As a group, we didn’t yet know each other’s strengths and weaknesses, so our challenge was to figure out who was best, and worst, at what and who we could trust with what, in an environment most of us had never been in. 

This was vital because it was the best way for us to safely maneuver the raft down the river.  For those of you who have never white water rafted, it’s dangerous.  Rafts can capsize and you can drown or get scraped up on rocks.  

We started out making some assumptions about who was good at what, which turned out not to be the best for our raft.  Initially a man was placed at the front because it was one of the more difficult positions and required coordination.  It became apparent that he was not the most coordinated, so we allowed me to switch places with him, probably due to my athletic background. 

Quite frankly I was relieved because I had no desire to fall in the freezing cold rapids and get either scraped up or washed down the rapids.  As it turned out, he had a knack for reading the rapids from the back of the raft as the rudder.

We next learned one side of our raft was rowing stronger than the other because we were a rowing person short, so we had to moderate our rowing.  I couldn’t figure it out until I looked back and noticed one person was sitting in the raft not rowing.  I was not aware of this at the time, but this person had nearly drowned once and was petrified to be in a raft at all.

 That person didn’t even swim in pools or go near water at all.  The trust was starting to build, I knew there must be a reason why the person wasn’t helping row.  We all just rowed harder to compensate.  End, part 1.